Amorphous hydrogenated carbon coatings (a-C:H) are well known for their exceptional tribological properties and are established as tool coatings for numerous forming applications. However, utilized in dry forming processes of aluminium a premature failure of an a-C:H coated tool often occurs due to strong adhesive wear. In this paper the run-in behaviour of a-C:H is investigated and as a possible reason for the premature tool failure evaluated. Therefore, oscillating ball-on-disc tribometer tests and strip drawing tests, for a more realistic emulation of real forming processes, will be conducted. According to these tests, the run-in period of a-C:H coatings is characterized by a high friction value and adhesion tendency and thus is decisive for the tool performance. Based on a subsequent analysis of the coating wear, the predominating wear mechanisms during the run-in period are discussed. The intrinsic nanomater-scale a-C:H roughness is identified as a crucial factor determining the tribological properties of the run-in behaviour. By reducing the coating roughness prior to the forming process, the adhesion tendency and friction value can be reduced significantly. The results demonstrate the tribological performance of pre-treated a-C:H coatings for dry sheet metal forming of aluminium EN AW-5083.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.

Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.